House Approves DTV Delay

Legislation postponing the digital television transition from Feb. 17 to June 12 now moves to the White House, where President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill. Democrats insist the delay is necessary and will occur once only, since public safety officials and winners of the 700MHz spectrum auction are waiting to occupy the analog spectrum being deserted by television broadcasters.

The U.S. House of Representatives Feb. 4 voted
264-158 to move the digital television transition from Feb. 17 to June 12,
joining the U.S. Senate in approving a 115-day delay for television stations to
begin exclusively broadcasting in digital.

Democrats cast 241 votes for the digital TV transition delay while House
Republicans voted solidly against the delay with 148 casting negative votes.
The legislation now heads to the White House, where President Obama is expected
to sign the delay into law.

"This delay is absolutely necessary and will be for one time only,"
said Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), chairman of the House Telecom Subcommittee.
"We are now less than two weeks from the Feb. 17 digital television
transition date, and millions of households remain unprepared."

Boucher said the most recent Nielsen survey showed 5.7 percent of the viewing
public, or 6.5 million households, are "totally unprepared" for the
digital transition. In order for consumers to receive digital television
signals, consumers who solely depend on over-the-air signals for television
reception must buy a digital television set or a digital converter box for
their analog sets. Consumers who use cable or satellite service are not
affected by the change.

Prompted by a Jan. 5 announcement by the NTIA (National Telecommunications and
Information Administration) that funds for the $1.34 billion subsidy digital
converter box program were exhausted, Obama and Democrats in the House and
Senate immediately began clamoring for a delay, insisting that sticking to the
Feb. 17 deadline would create consumer confusion.

"If almost 6 percent of the nation's households lose all TV service, I
think most people would declare the digital TV transition to be a
failure," Boucher said. "It's clear that the only way to avoid a
massive disruption affecting 5.7 percent of the TV viewing public is to delay
the transition and provide the funding to assure that, when it occurs, it
occurs smoothly."
The DTV delay bill does not include any funds for additional digital converter
boxes, but the House stimulus package passed
Jan. 28 includes $650 million for more coupons. Democrats also said the
Federal Communications Commission's call centers to handle the digital TV
transition question were woefully ill-prepared.